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I recently posted some data on changes in
average incomes as reflected in the three most recent Canadian Censuses.
In response, Ian Ritchie suggested that I take a look at median incomes.
I've now done so. For men, medians, and a comparison of means and medians,
indicate a growing income disparity between 1986 and 1996. Thus mean
income was 17.5% higher than median income in 1986; 19.2% higher in 1991; and
23.1% higher in 1996. Between 1991 and 1996, mean income for men fell by
just over 4%, whereas median income fell by just over 7%.
For women, there does not appear to be
much of a trend. Mean income was 30% to 32% higher than median income from
Census year to Census year. It would seem that all women were moving
upward togther, rapidly between 1986 and 1991, and barely between 1991 and
1996. They were making gains on men, moving from about 48% of male median
income in 1986 to over 57% in 1996. I suppose that's progress, but at some
eight or nine percentage points a year, it would take them quite a while to
catch up. Moreover, the improvement between 1991 and 1996, (a little over
4%) was not really reflective of their gain, but of men's loss.
Ed Weick
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